Summary Of Girl Powdering Her Neck By Cathy Song

The Connection Between Art and Poems
As you walk into a museum and gaze upon the artwork on the walls, have you ever wondered about the lives of the subjects within the paintings? Being inspired by an artwork is common and ekphrastic literature reflects this. Poets and writers write a response or interpretation of the artist’s thoughts. Kitagawa Utamaro, a famous artist in Japan in the 1790s for his woodblock prints of beautiful women captured a girl applying powder on her neck in the mirror. This very print inspired Cathy Song to include a poem about the girl in her award winning collection, Picture Bride. In Cathy Song’s “Girl Powdering Her Neck”, the poet uses strong imagery, especially colors and comparisons to create a contrast between

Japan is a relatively conservative country compared to western countries and Song establishes this difference early. The girl’s “hair is black/with hints of red/the color of seaweed/spread over rocks” (12-15). The black symbolizes Japan and the miniscule amounts of the contrasting red is the outside influence. Black is usually a conservative color due to its dark hue and red is considered to be sensual. The girl is trying to balance her sexuality in a conservative society. Utamaro’s original print is in yellow and black, which is not particularly colorful. Song’s interpretation of the print adds color, and by doing so, adds her own thoughts of the delicate balance between the wants of the girl and society in that time

The poem describes the girl within the print as a “mask of beauty” (58), which reflects the actual print. The girl is the ideal Japanese beauty since Song adds that she wears a “peach-dyed kimono”, which is a reference to the traditional garment women in Japan wear. The style of Utamaro’s print also reflects this as the reflection of the girl’s face is shown in the mirror. However, this ideal image is marred by the girl’s “eyes narrow/in a moment of self-scrutiny./The mouths parts/as if desiring to disturb/the placid plum face” (41-45). The subject of the print and the poem desires to speak to “break the symmetry of silence” (46) since by speaking, she will be breaking the reflection of the ideal Japanese beauty. The mirror only reflects outer beauty, which is at odds with the girl. She believes she is worth more than what her culture deems her. The image Song paints of the girl as she is about to speak, but in the end decides not to, is vivid and pairs well with the print. The poem and print is intertwined because “meaning is constructed in an active relationship between an art object and the viewer” (Demetriou). Readers have to visually see the art as well as read the poem to understand the descriptions the poet adds to the